Theophrastus:Characters is a collection of thirty short character-sketches of various types of individuals who might be met in the streets of Athens in the late fourth century BC. It is a unique work which has had a profound influence on European literature. This edition aims to make it accessible to students, by offering a radically improved text and a commentary which brings out the meaning and nuances of the dazzling but sometimes difficult Greek and offers full elucidation of the often enigmatic references to contemporary social practices and historical events. There is also a full introduction, which discusses the antecedents and affiliations of the work, its date, its purpose, and its literary qualities. ‘… this is an outstanding edition.’ Colin Leach, Classics for All (https://classicsforall.org.uk/) ‘… Diggle has elegantly repackaged in an inviting school edition his magisterial text, translation and commentary on Theophrastus’ Characters that is fun to read and appropriate for a number of pedagogical applications.’ James J. Clauss, Bryn Mawr Classical Review ‘The author's interest in making this text accessible to a wider specialist audience - at a time when one must rightly speak of a more open and inclusive classical studies - is to be welcomed. Interested readers of Theophrastus, especially students, will certainly be able to benefit from this new edition.’ Theofanis Tsiampokalos, Exemplaria Classica Makes accessible to the student a work of supreme importance and interest which illustrates many aspects of ancient society. JAMES DIGGLE is Professor Emeritus of Greek and Latin at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Queens' College, where he was Director of Studies in Classics for over forty years. His publications include The Phaethon of Euripides (Cambridge, 1970), Flauii Cresconii Corippi Iohannidos Libri VIII (joint editor, Cambridge, 1970), Euripidis Fabulae (Oxford Classical Text, 3 vols., 1981–1994), Studies on the Text of Euripides (1981), The Textual Tradition of Euripides' Orestes (1991), Euripidea: Collected Essays (1994), Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta Selecta (1998), Theophrastus, Characters (Cambridge, 2004). He was University Orator at Cambridge for eleven years and has published a selection of his speeches (Cambridge Orations 1982–1993 (Cambridge, 1994)). He is also joint editor of The Classical Papers of A. E. Housman (Cambridge, 1972), joint author of Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca (Cambridge, 2005), and Editor-in-Chief of The Cambridge Greek Lexicon (Cambridge, 2021). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens.